Walshaw Dean forum 2 room
Image by LivingRocks
close
more_vert

StoneLifter wrote:
No, it looks more like one of these strange constructions in the middle of a circle - on the plan, at least. Butts are arranged in lines - half a dozen, at least, and 1906 is when the grouse shooting would have been at a peak ...
The dry stone wall structure shown in the 1906 photo & description is suggestive of a butt,. I agree they do not usually occur singly but if you look at the OS map a line of butts is shown extending up the hill on the opposite side of the valley. Could the structure in the circle not be an extension of this line with the intermediate ones drowned in the reservoir?

Maybe a look at the butts remaining on the hill could cast some light on things, Looks like I’m going back again in the next few days!

Fancy a trip tomorrow, LivingRocks, I am going!

Returned to Walshaw Dean today, I'm now certain it's the circle having been able to recreate the 1902 shot, it's lost some stones, but enough remain & the landscape matches perfectly to confirm that this is the site.

No luck with the grouse butt in the centre theory, I checked out the hill opposite hoping to find dry stone wall constructions similar to that shown in the 1902 shot, but no luck, everything up there is newly built, with no traces of any older structures.